Hot Topics:

PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Bulldawgs blow out Trojans for district title

Las Cruces wins third-straight district tournament championship

By Jason Groves

jgroves@lcsun-news.com @jpgroves on Twitter

Posted:
03/01/2014 09:36:32 PM MST

Click photo to enlarge

Steve MacIntyre - For the Sun-News
Mayfield High School boys basketball player Lloyd Gardner goes up for a shot as Las Cruces High School player Malik Woods-Williams defends Saturday night at the Mayfield gymnasium. The Bulldawgs beat the Trojans 61-24 for the District 3-5A tournament championship.

LAS CRUCES >> William Benjamin has become accustomed to winning the District 3-5A boys basketball championship.

Benjamin and his Las Cruces High Bulldawgs won their third straight district tournament championship with a 61-24 victory at rival Mayfield on Saturday.

"It's special because I don't think if you were to ask who was going to win the district, you wouldn't say the Las Cruces Bulldawgs just for the simple fact that we don't have those familiar faces," said Benjamin, whose team enters the state tournament as winners of eight of their last nine games. "This is special to me because it's a new group and they kept the tradition going."

The Bulldawgs are a much different team than Benjamin's group that won the Class 5A state title last year. At 18-11, the Bulldawgs are not a lock for a Top-8 seed in the Class 5A State Tournament when the field is selected on Sunday.

"I had a completely different role this year than last year," Bulldawgs senior forward J.T. Romney said. "We all had to adjust to our roles. That's why we struggled at the beginning, but we have been putting things together at the right time."

Saturday's championship game between rival schools was not what anyone expected after the teams split a pair of competitive games during the regular season. Mayfield was playing without junior Kavika Johnson, who was attending a college football combine in Southern California. But it's unlikely, even with Johnson in the lineup, that the Trojans would have been victorious, as Mayfield had no answer for Bulldawgs forward Malik Woods.

Advertisement

"We just came out and executed," Woods said. "It means a lot. Now we have to get ready for the state tournament."

Woods scored 26 points on Saturday and was named the District 3-5A Player of the Year following the game.

"I was hoping for a No. 6 seed but after people see this result, I don't know if we will get a home game or not," Mayfield coach Tommy Morrow said. "We just didn't play well."

Morrow started the game in a 2-3 zone, but Woods found the gaps early and often, scoring 10 of the Bulldawgs first 14 points. The Bulldawgs pulled away in the second quarter and turned the game into a mercy rule situation with 5:38 left in the game.

"Kavika wasn't there and not being there hurt them," Benjamin said. "We just executed our zone offense and Malik made his shots. When he's making his shots like that, he's tough to handle."

At one point, Las Cruces scored 20 consecutive points - the final 13 points of the first half and the first seven of the third quarter.

"As long as you get hot at the right time, you never know what can happen in the state tournament," Romney said.

"The last loss we had was to Mayfield," Benjamin said. "We have been playing good basketball. I feel like our district should have two teams with a home game. Sometimes when you say parity, people think your district is not good. Gadsden is good. Alamogordo is good. I think we deserve a home game. I think Mayfield does too."

The Trojans finish the regular season 16-11, but Saturday's result could put the Trojans out of the Top-8.

"We will see if we can't pick up the pieces," Morrow said. "As important as this game was, the game next week is more important."

Billionaires, entertainers and athletes alike announced their intentions to pursue the Los Angeles Clippers with varying degrees of seriousness Wednesday, proving the longtime losers will be quite a prize if the NBA is able to wrest control of the team away from Donald Sterling after his lifetime ban for racist remarks. Full Story

Louie, who (like Louis) is a New York comic and a divorced father of two daughters, knows struggle and angst and cloudy wonderment. He views life through eyes with a stricken look, dwelling in a state of comfortable dread. Full Story